Basics.
Team:
Solo Project
Role:
Lab Automation Engineering Intern
Dates:
July 2017 - September 2017
Location:
Essai, Inc.
Technologies Used:
C, C#, Arduino and various lab equipments
The Project
During my internship at Essai Inc, I was responsible for automating the thermal equipments the Lab Engineers were using to conduct tests. My task were to work along side the engineers, study the test procedures, and then create pieces of software and hardware that can make the process more efficient.
Observations
When performing quality tests on flow wells, the engineers have to manually log the numbers and adjust the air pressure manually. This slows the speed in which the tests can be conducted.
When performing quality tests on thermal heads, the engineers have to manually control the heating and cooling system. This decreases the accuracy by introducing human error.
*a thermal head is a piece of hardware that performs heat stress testing on electronic equipments
Intel built a specialized adapter to interact with their software which was no longer in production. The adapter in the lab was barely working as the wires have degraded after repeated use. This reduces the quality of life for the engineers as they have to figure out a way to hold down the wires every time a test is being ran.
What I did.
The first solution that I came up with was an automated well testing program. I was able to find the correct inputs to control the airflow of the equipment and the correct outputs to automatically log everything into an excel sheet. This is done by reading the specification sheets and taking apart the control panel for the flow well testing equipment. The hardware of this project consists of an Arduino and an LCD display which was soldered together in the lab. The program created was able to run a complete test automatically without human assistance in just 2 minutes which was a significant decrease from a 20 minute manual test. Considering the lab can receive flow wells in batches of 50 or more, what normally takes 2 working days to be processed can now be done in less than 2 hours.
The second solution that I came up with was an automated heating/cooling program. This solution integrates a black box, a water cooling device with a C# program that automatically runs the tests. The black box on the left connects to the thermal head and reads its temperatures while the cooling device on the right (the one with two yellow tubes) controls the temperature of the thermal head. By working with the lab engineers, various preset tests were programmed into a simple and easy to use interface with clear red and green indicators if the equipment passed the test. The program was able to conduct two tests in parallel and provided more accuracy when it comes to adjusting the temperatures.
The third solution that I came up with was a make-shift adapter that would go on to replace the Intel Adapter that was broken beyond repair. I measured the inputs and outputs of an Intel Adapter and mimicked it with an Arduino. This eliminates the need to use Intel's adapter and is able to create our own version of the editor that can be integrated into automation projects, such as reading the serial number of the chip during a series of tests. The simplified editor also ensures less room for error when tests are being set up by a technician. Overall, this solution improved the quality of life for Lab Engineers as they no longer have to use their fingers to nudge the broken wires into the correct position while conducting a 5-10 minute long test.